Jacob Strandell
Uppsala University, Department of Sociology, Faculty Member
- University of Copenhagen, Sociology, Graduate StudentUniversity of Gothenburg, Department of Sociology and Work Science, Faculty MemberSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Environmental Communication and Management, Post-Docadd
- Cognitive Sociology, Sociology of Culture and Cognition, The Self, Philosophy of Science, Discourse Analysis, Sociology of Science, and 13 moreSociology Of Intimacy, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Identity (Culture), Cultural Studies, Queer Theory, Self and Identity, Self-Esteem, Culture and Cognition, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognition, Focus Groups, Michel Foucault, and Social Neuroscienceedit
- RESEARCH INTERESTS: Culture and cognition; Identity and self-esteem; Motivation and social change/stability; Social ... moreRESEARCH INTERESTS:
Culture and cognition; Identity and self-esteem; Motivation and social change/stability; Social sustainability
Close relationships; Romantic Love; Non-monogamy; Sexuality; Individualization
Interdisciplinary theory; Conceptualization; Visual models
Qualitative methodology; Focus groups; Interviews; Discourse Analysisedit
Self-esteem research has been in “crisis” during the last decade, due to the lack of strong, consistent correlations between self-esteem and behavioral outcomes. Some researchers have interpreted this as indicating that self-esteem is... more
Self-esteem research has been in “crisis” during the last decade, due to the lack of strong, consistent correlations between self-esteem and behavioral outcomes. Some researchers have interpreted this as indicating that self-esteem is inconsequential in many important areas of life. However, the model of direct causality used in correlational research, between a general self-esteem trait and specific behaviors, may be unrealistic. In contrast, this paper develops a model of self-esteem-motivated behaviour as originating from past, current or future (desired) self-concepts. This model shows how an interaction of catalytic factors determines how self-esteem influences behaviour. That is, what “self-esteem” actually “does.” By clarifying the different ways in which self-esteem affects behavior, the model shows that construing self-esteem as a passive variable with direct causal influence on behavior is inadequate and misleading and that previous contradictory results are a consequence of this misconceptualization and subsequent reification of self-esteem. Because self-esteem and the self-concept are inseparable (one is an attitude towards the other) self-esteem-motivated behavior is always about self-construction, and thus performative. Future self-esteem research and theory should therefore focus on how people seek to enact, maintain, or defend a desired identity through performative actions.
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Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Psychology, Social Psychology, and 14 morePhilosophy of Agency, Perception, Cultural Sociology, Focus Group discussions, Focus Groups, Attribution Theory, Discourse, Autonomy, Sweden, Marriage, Individualization, Attribution, Cultural Schemas, and Conceptualization
The expanding gaming industry now includes a large group of consumers who watch others play games. On Twitch.tv – the leading platform for gameplay streaming – influencers livestream themselves pla...
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In both policy-making and academia, the realisation is growing that transitions striving for sustainability have to be just to be socially accepted. This insight has given rise to institutionalised approaches to a "just... more
In both policy-making and academia, the realisation is growing that transitions striving for sustainability have to be just to be socially accepted. This insight has given rise to institutionalised approaches to a "just transition"but also beyond these, justice is a key challenge in the governance of sustainability transitions. In this paper, we examine how justice arguments are being used in national-level discourses of transition governance in Sweden. Analysing 121 policy-related documents from 2019 to 2021, we found that justice was discursively treated in a way that essentially stifled change. Political actors attempted to trump each other's justice claims rather than to genuinely engage with them. Justice concerns that would not serve re-election, such as solidarity across social boundaries, were almost absent from the material. Based on these findings, we critically explore how justice arguments contribute to politicizing transition governance in particular ways, rendering some policy options impossible.
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The expanding gaming industry now includes a large group of consumers who watch others play games. On Twitch.tv – the leading platform for gameplay streaming – influencers livestream themselves pla...
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Abstract This study adds to research on digital interactions by exploring the role of emoji use patterns in online dating among young adults. Focus group data suggest emojis play a similar role as non-verbal behaviors do in an offline... more
Abstract This study adds to research on digital interactions by exploring the role of emoji use patterns in online dating among young adults. Focus group data suggest emojis play a similar role as non-verbal behaviors do in an offline context, where coordination is used to ascertain mutual interest. The data shows how the degree of synchronization in emoji use patterns (such as frequency, types, and style) is used as a feedback tool to assess a chat partner's romantic fit. Attunement of emoji use patterns between the partners is also used to signal and gage interest, for example by using suggestive emojis to “test” the other partner's interest and intentions, or to establish a shared mood. Conversely, a lack of reciprocity is experienced as awkward or wrong and can produce insecurity and doubt. To understand this back-and-forth process of mutual suggestion and attunement, we propose a modified version of Collins’ interaction ritual model. In this model, we highlight the importance of shared interpretative schemas and interaction scripts, which set normative expectations for how emoji patterns can be used to build sexual or romantic chemistry.
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Much research has demonstrated that human behavior can never be fully accounted for by deliberate rationality, as much of what happens in the human mind occurs outside of our awareness and beyond conscious control. Contemporary... more
Much research has demonstrated that human behavior can never be fully accounted for by deliberate rationality, as much of what happens in the human mind occurs outside of our awareness and beyond conscious control. Contemporary dual-process theories attempt to detail this duality of the human mind by distinguishing between two fundamentally different types of cognitive processes: on the one hand the nonconscious, automatic, and intuitive; and the conscious, deliberate, and rational on the other. These models also attempt to describe how the two types of processes interact with each other, and how various contextual factors influence their relationship. Dual-process models of cognition have proven useful in many fields of study, yet sociological use of these models to understand the micromechanisms of culture have been largely limited until very recently. This chapter aims to provide insight into dual-process models of cognition and their close resemblance with many core cultural the...
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Self-esteem research has been in “crisis” during the last decade, due to the lack of strong, consistent correlations between self-esteem and behavioral outcomes. Some researchers have interpreted this as indicating that self-esteem is... more
Self-esteem research has been in “crisis” during the last decade, due to the lack of strong, consistent correlations between self-esteem and behavioral outcomes. Some researchers have interpreted this as indicating that self-esteem is inconsequential in many important areas of life. However, the model of direct causality used in correlational research, between a general self-esteem trait and specific behaviors, may be unrealistic. In contrast, this paper develops a model of self-esteem-motivated behaviour as originating from past, current or future (desired) self-concepts. This model shows how an interaction of catalytic factors determines how self-esteem influences behaviour. That is, what “self-esteem” actually “does.” By clarifying the different ways in which self-esteem affects behavior, the model shows that construing self-esteem as a passive variable with direct causal influence on behavior is inadequate and misleading and that previous contradictory results are a consequence ...
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Research Interests: Social Sciences and Poly
The expanding gaming industry now includes a large group of consumers who watch others play games. On Twitch.tv – the leading platform for gameplay streaming – influencers livestream themselves playing games while viewers watch and... more
The expanding gaming industry now includes a large group of consumers who watch others play games. On Twitch.tv – the leading platform for gameplay streaming – influencers livestream themselves playing games while viewers watch and interact with them. Previous research suggests that social interaction may be critical for a successful stream but has not studied gameplay streams as Interaction Rituals, a model describing how interaction lead to social motivation. Analysis of four gameplay streams shows how the streamer, through inclusion strategies and active viewer participation, promote viewer engagement in a way that resembles the mechanisms of offline Interaction Rituals. The model, therefore, appears to be useful for understanding how successful gameplay streams draw a returning audience through producing positive social emotions and parasocial attachment to the group.
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Individualization remains the most prominent theoretical explanation for the shifts in European demographic trends since the 1960s, including decreasing marriage and fertility rates and increasing divorce rates. Demographic theorists... more
Individualization remains the most prominent theoretical explanation for the shifts in European demographic trends since the 1960s, including decreasing marriage and fertility rates and increasing divorce rates. Demographic theorists suggest that a shift from traditional to individualized values, such as autonomy and self-realization, has been driving these trends. However, conceptualizing individualization as a set of values cannot account for why Swedish marriage rates have increased since 1998, despite highly individualized values. This article suggests re-thinking individualization as a form of internally referring attributions in causal and moral reasoning about human behavior, emphasizing agency and internal causes over structure or context. As such, individualization shapes peoples’ perceptions and understandings of the world, including their expectations of marriage and close relationships. Data from focus groups support this conceptualization and show how participants individualize risks, while perceiving marriage itself as inconsequential. In line with previous research, individualized reasoning obfuscated assumptions that were less individualized and implicit.
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Self-esteem research has been in ‘‘crisis’’ during the last decade, due to the lack of strong, consistent correlations between self-esteem and behavioral outcomes. Some researchers have interpreted this as indicating that self-esteem is... more
Self-esteem research has been in ‘‘crisis’’ during the last decade, due to the lack of strong, consistent correlations between self-esteem and behavioral outcomes. Some researchers have interpreted this as indicating that self-esteem is inconsequential in many important areas of life. However, the model of direct causality used in correlational research, between a general self-esteem trait and specific behaviors, may be unrealistic. In contrast, this paper develops a model of self-esteem-motivated behaviour as originating from past, current or future (desired) self-concepts. This model shows how an interaction of catalytic factors determines how self-esteem influences behaviour. That is, what ‘self-esteem’’ actually ‘‘does.’’ By clarifying the different ways in which self-esteem affects behavior, the model shows that construing self-esteem as a passive variable with direct causal influence on behavior is inadequate and misleading and that previous contradictory results are a consequence of this misconceptualization and subsequent reification of self-esteem. Because self-esteem and the self-concept are inseparable (one is an attitude towards the other) self-esteem-motivated behavior is always about self-construction, and thus performative. Future self-esteem research and theory should therefore focus on how people seek to enact, maintain, or defend a desired identity through performative actions.
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Self-esteem research, arguably the largest field of research in the history of social science, has devoted much of its efforts to the idea that self-esteem causes a broad range of behavioral and social problems, but has failed to produce... more
Self-esteem research, arguably the largest field of research in the history of social science, has devoted much of its efforts to the idea that self-esteem causes a broad range of behavioral and social problems, but has failed to produce strong, consistent evidence for most claims. However, this research has conceptual and methodological problems, including a limited understanding of the role of culture, and the assumption that global levels of self-esteem are the main causal mechanism of interest. This paper argues that self-esteem motivated behavior may be better understood as socio-culturally contextualized pursuits of valued identities, which are difficult to understand without considering their social and cultural conditions. Self-esteem therefore lies at the intersection of culture and cognition, and it is argued that an interdisciplinary approach to self-esteem pursuits could be beneficial. A way to reconcile constructionist views of identity with a cognitive self is then suggested and discussed. It is possible, by drawing on models of neurocognition, to think of a cognitive self as performed, context-dependent, and emergent rather than fixed, internal, and expressed. Finally, the paper discusses the social contingencies and consequences of self-esteem pursuits in relation to research issues such as aggression, stratification, crime, masculinity, and political attitudes.
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Suggesting to introduce gender neutral personal pronouns can provoke significant reactionary resistance. In Sweden this debate went national and was in one way or another covered by all kinds of major news media. Somehow this issue is... more
Suggesting to introduce gender neutral personal pronouns can provoke significant reactionary resistance. In Sweden this debate went national and was in one way or another covered by all kinds of major news media. Somehow this issue is apparently important to people. In this course paper for a post-grad course in gender studies I suggest how gender neutral personal pronouns can be experienced as threatening to individuals without referring to abstractions such as the patriarchy.
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A growing number of sociologists are now joining the interdisciplinary project of studying culture-cognition interaction. However, broad engagement has been prevented by the vastly different vocabularies of cognitive science and cultural... more
A growing number of sociologists are now joining the interdisciplinary project of studying culture-cognition interaction. However, broad engagement has been prevented by the vastly different vocabularies of cognitive science and cultural theory, which creates the illusion of mutual incommensurability and irrelevance. “Cultural schemas” offers promise as a conceptual bridge between these vocabularies, but the relationship between cultural and cognitive schemas requires further clarification by cultural sociologists to facilitate broader engagement and two-way compatibility. This paper reviews the schema concept and makes four interrelated arguments for conceptualizing cultural schemas and their relationship to cognitive schemas and other cultural conceptualizations. Cultural schemas should: 1) be conceptualized as a social analogue to cognitive schemas rather than as a subtype of mental patterns; 2) have the same conceptual role and structure as cognitive schemas in relation to other concepts, as an umbrella term subsuming other, more specific conceptualizations of culture; 3) be thought of as a supra-individual phenomenon with emergent properties while recognizing the neurocognitive microfoundations of culture; and 4) emphasize the asymmetric relationships between culture and cognition, and the disparate mental and social mechanisms involved as one shapes another. A multilevel analytical framework of this relationship, based on established macro-micro models, is suggested.
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This paper briefly covers the history of culture and cognition -research in broad strokes to illustrate how we ended up in a situation where ‘cognition’ is a foreign term to culture researchers (as is ‘culture’ to many cognitive... more
This paper briefly covers the history of culture and cognition -research in broad strokes to illustrate how we ended up in a situation where ‘cognition’ is a foreign term to culture researchers (as is ‘culture’ to many cognitive scientists). It describes the separate developments of cognitive science and cultural studies, and the subsequent developments cultural sociology drawing heavily upon the latter while being largely disconnected from the former. Finally, the paper describes the emergence of cognitive sociology and its two main approaches that I label isolationism and reductionism. However, this chasm is a product of how the conceptual vocabularies of cognitive science and cultural sociology developed in relative isolation of each other. The paper is an abridged online version of a doctoral dissertation introduction.